Terje Dokland, Associate Professor of Microbiology, received his Ph.D. from the University of Oslo, Norway on a joint program with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, in 1993. His Ph.D. work involved cryo-electron microscopy and 3D reconstruction on the bacteriophages P2, P4 and lambda, and was done with Dr. Stephen D. Fuller at EMBL and Björn H. Lindqvist at the University of Oslo, one of the earliest applications of cryo-EM methods to bacteriophages. From 1994-1998 he carried out postdoctoral studies with Dr. Michael G. Rossmann at Purdue University where he carried out X-ray crystallographic structure determination of bacteriophage phiX174 and Norwalk virus. In 1998, Dr. Dokland took up a position as senior scientist at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (formerly Insitute of Molecular Agrobiology) in Singapore, where he set up a structural biology laboratory, including facilities for X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy. He remained in Singapore until April 2004, when he joined the faculty in the Department of Microbiology at UAB. His outside interests include music (bass player in the band "Burning Vinyl"), songwriting, oil painting, hiking, mountain biking, craft beer and international cooking.

My lab uses a hybrid approach combining cryo-electron microscopy, three-dimensional reconstruction, X-ray crystallography, NMR and other biochemical and biophysical approaches to study the structures of viruses, bacteria and proteins involved in viral and bacterial pathogenicity. Our main method is cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which allows imaging and structure determination of macromolecules from proteins to entire cells in their native state. As director of the UAB cryo-EM facility, I assist many users across UAB with their EM needs.
Our main project is on the bacteriophage-mediated mobilization of Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity islands (SaPIs). S. aureus is a ubiquitous commensal on human skin and mucosal epithelia, but is also an opportunistic pathogen that is associated with a range of pathogenic conditions in humans and animals. The emergence of virulent strains of S. aureus that are resistant to a range of antibiotics has become a significant public health problem. Many virulence determinants in S. aureus are carried on mobile genetic elements, such as SaPIs, which are 10-20 kb genomic islands that often carry genes for superantigen toxins. Normally stably integrated into the host genome, the SaPIs are mobilized upon infection with certain “helper” bacteriophages, leading to the packaging of the SaPI genome into phage-like transducing particles using structural proteins encoded by the helper phage. Mobilization is a multi-step process that involves derepression, excision and replication of the SaPI element, followed by assembly, DNA packaging and release of the transducing particles. We study the factors involved in the various steps of this mobilization process using a combination of genetics, biochemistry and structural approaches, including cryo-EM and 3D reconstruction, X-ray crystallography and NMR.
We also apply cryo-EM methods to a range of other collaborative projects on a variety of viruses, prokaryotic cells and exosomes.